Recently, there has come to be extensively used an endoscope (scope or fiber scope) whereby organs within a body cavity can be diagnosed or inspected by inserting an elongate insertable part into the body cavity.
It is used not only for medical uses but also for industrial uses to observe or inspect an object within a boiler, machine or chemical plant pipe.
Further, various kinds of electronic scopes using such solid state imaging device as a charage coupled device (CCD) for the imaging means are also used. Such electronic scope has advantages that the resolution is higher than in a fiber scope, that it is easier to record and reproduce a picture image and further that such picture image processing as the magnification of a picture image or comparison of two pictures is easier.
Conventionally, in recording the picture image of the above mentioned electronic scope, while seeing the TV monitor, the observer pushes a remote releasing switch of a camera fitted to a TV photographing apparatus as a recording apparatus provided separately from this TV monitor or sends a releasing signal to this camera for photographing. The formation of an electronic scope as this related art is shown in FIG. 1.
In FIG. 1, in an electronic scope 1, an elongate insertable part 2 is inserted into a body cavity so that an illuminating light emitted from a light source lamp 6 forming a light source part 4 provided within a control apparatus 3 may be radiated into the body cavity. The image of the observed part radiated with this illuminating light is converted to a picture image signal by a solid state imaging device not illustrated provided at the tip of the insertable part 2, is then input into a video signal processing circuit 7 provided within the control apparatus 3, is converted to such composite video signal as, for example, of an NTSC system and is input into a character superimposing circuit 8.
On the other hand, the above mentioned control apparatus 3 is provided with a releasing switch 9 and resetting switch 11 which can input respectively a releasing signal and resetting signal into an operating circuit 12. When the resetting signal is input into this operating circuit 12, the character superimposing circuit 8 will be instructed to superimpose the number of film frames of 0 on the video signal and thereby a frame number display 14 displayed, for example, below the picture surface together with the picture image of the observed part in the monitor 13 will be reset to 0. When the releasing signal is input, the operating circuit 12 will output the releasing signal to a camera 17 provided with a photographing apparatus body 16 and a picture image of a monitor not illustrated provided within the photographing apparatus body 16 will be photographed. Simultaneously with this photographing, the operating circuit 12 increases the film counter number value by one (that is, as 1), 1 is superimposed on the video signal in the character superimposing circuit 8 and the film frame number display 14 of the monitor 13 displays 1 of the photographing number. Then, whenever a releasing signal is input, the same operation will be made and the film frame number display 14 will increase. If the film set in the camera 17 is, for example, of 36 frames, when the frame number display 14 becomes 36, the film will be exchanged. When this film exchange ends, the resetting switch 11 will be pushed to reset the film frame number display 14 of the monitor 13 to be 36 and display 0.
Thus, in the endoscope system of the above mentioned related art, whenever the film is exchanged, the resetting switch will have to be pushed and the film frame number display 14 will have to be made 0. However, the photographing apparatus body 16 is lower in the operating frequency than in the control apparatus 3 operated frequently by the operator and is therefore arranged away from the operator so as not to be in the way of the operator. Therefore, after exchanging the film on the photographing apparatus body 16 side, the operator will often forget to push the resetting switch 11 on the control apparatus 3 side. Thereafter, during the operation, though the film has not been finished, such mis-operation as exchanging the film has often occurred.
By the way, in the publication of Japanese Utility Model Application Laid Open No. 58448/1987 (U.S. patent application No. 907833) as a related art, there is shown a technique wherein a sensor sensing the on-off state of the current source of a TV monitor is provided and the release of the camera photographing the TV monitor is operatively connected with this sensor so as to be operatable only when the current source of the TV monitor is on.
Also, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,300, there is shown a picture image photographing apparatus whereby a film photographing a picture image of a TV monitor can be fed in the direction vertical to the film.